Vienna - International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief
Mohamed ElBaradei called on Syria Thursday to allow further
inspections of the country's alleged nuclear programme.
In his statement before the IAEA board of governors, ElBaradei
also urged Iran to clarify open questions on past studies that were
possibly related to nuclear weapons development.
Last week, Syria's top nuclear official Ibrahim Othman indicated
further visits to the alleged reactor site at al-Kibar, which was
bombed by Israel last year, were unlikely, and that other sites could
not be shown to IAEA inspectors as they were military installations.
Asking for 'maximum transparency' from Syria, ElBaradei said his
agency was capable of developing modalities to protect military
secrets, while letting his inspectors carry out their work.
But the IAEA chief also said it was 'regrettable, and indeed
baffling' that his agency had not been able to buy any commercial
satellite images of al-Kibar taken by after the attack in September
2007, but before the site was landscaped by Syria soon afterwards.
A diplomat said that while one member state had provided
low-resolution imagery, the pictures taken by private companies would
have shown more details. One or more governments might have bought up
all commercial images taken by companies in eight countries, the
diplomat suggested.
IAEA inspectors first visited al-Kibar in June, after having
received intelligence information from the US indicating Syria was in
the process of secretly building a reactor, possibly with North
Korean help.
ElBaradei on Thursday summed up his report on Syria from last week
by saying that 'while it cannot be excluded that the building in
question was intended for non-nuclear use, the features of the
building ... are similar to what may be found in connection with a
reactor site.'
Syria has stated that al-Kibar was a conventional military site
and that uranium particles found there by IAEA inspectors must have
originated from munitions used by the Israeli air force to destroy
the installation.
The head of the IAEA also called on Israel to provide information
in order to verify Syria's claim.
Regarding Iran, ElBaradei said the country's leaders should
clarify to what extent the documents on alleged nuclear weapons work
which the IAEA received from member states were correct.
Iran has stated that the allegations were based on forged
documents, and that some of the research projects on missiles and
high explosives were not related to nuclear applications.
The IAEA has not been able to make progress on this issue since
March.
USA
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